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Topic: Snakes in a '69 Six Banger Coupe (Read 1564 times)

A few weeks ago I responded to a CL ad for a set of original '57 Chevy wheels located 100 miles SE of Columbus in a small town along the Ohio River. The wheels were nice and I ended up buying them, but the best part of the trip was discovering that the neighbor of the guy selling the wheels had a '69 Camaro sitting under a metal carport behind his mobile home. I knocked on the guy's door and asked if I could look at it. It turned out to be a really odd and rare 6 cylinder with a 3-on-the-tree shifter. I worked out a price with the guy and made arrangements to come back and get it in a few days (I first had to find a place to stash it so that the head-of-the-war-dept wouldn't find out about it...at least for the next few months...we all know that game).

The seller, Don is 64 and the original owner. His dad, Don Sr. decided in the spring of '70 that it would be nice to get a new Nova for his son who was about to graduate from high school. They found a dealer with a few Novas for sale, and a left-over red '69 Camaro (as soon as Don Jr. saw the Camaro, the Nova idea was quickly forgotten). The Camaro had the misfortune of being built with a 6 cylinder engine with a 3-on-the-tree shifter. They bought it for the dealer's invoice cost on Mar 25th, 1970 (Good Friday)...6 months after it was built (apparently, the 3-on-the-tree shifter was not well received by potential buyers). Don drove it until 1974, then sold it to his cousin Charlie in the same town. Charlie drove it for several years, then replaced the manual tranny with an automatic so his wife could drive it (I guess a stick-shift was just too daunting for her to master). It was parked behind Charlie's garage with a blown tranny in 1986 and sat there rotting until Don got tired of seeing it deteriorate and bought it back in 2001. Don lives on small Soc Sec checks and doesn't have the means to restore it, hence its sale.

Some weird things about this car...it was first titled as a '70, and the title still says "1970". Don says the dealer sent the application for title to the Ohio DMV and someone there screwed up, probably thinking it was a '70 since it was so far into that model year. Another odd thing about it is that it came with an air cleaner with a Therm-Vac valve and heat stove for carburetor (I assumed all 1st Gen Camaros with sixes came without heat stoves). Don says the air cleaner is original to the car. The date code on the cowl tag says "09C" for the month built, so maybe the engines from Flint were then being built with 1970 air cleaners. The last odd thing about it is that its cowl tag says "X11", but it doesn't appear to have had wheelwell trim, or quarter panel chrome trim pieces. I would ask Don, but he's not happy that he sold the car right now...I'll ask him at some point in the future.

The car had very few options...250 engine upgrade, floor mats, whitewall tires, Style Trim Group (maybe...still not certain about that), and mag hubcaps. Don said that the Camaro had "really ugly" full hubcaps that he didn't like while it sat at the dealership...the salesman said they had a set of mag hubcaps that they would throw into the deal to make Don Jr. happy. It was a radio delete car, but the delete plate is broken and the right fender has been replaced with one from a '69 with an antenna. Along with the original air cleaner Don gave me the original column shift steering column, z-bar, and a few other original bits and pieces. It is also an original code 52 Garnet Red car with a code 711 black standard interior. The original engine is coded "F0905BE", and it still has 3 of its original "FC" coded wheels (originally painted black).

The best part of all is that the car served for quite awhile as the home for a very long rat snake. I pulled a snakeskin from one of the headliner bows and it measured over 6' long. I found 3 more long skins in the car. After quite a bit of cleaning the car still smells like snake sh*t...it may be awhile before the stench goes away.

I think it would be cool to keep it a 6cy, and the 3 on the tree, (as long as it had a synchro 1st gear). I am obviously a fan of garnet red, so sure bring back that combo. We were just talking on another thread about the weird options and sometimes lack there of and the way these cars were ordered.

If you don't have a Z, sure it might be fun to do a clone, but geez by the time you did that you would have some decent money in it, and probably could have bought a clone for cheaper. Do the 6 and the 3 on the tree, and have a 327 (or 350) built with a 4 speed at the ready in case you get bored with it.

Might be easier to get past the budget committee if you do it stock as well....

Bullitt...I was only kidding about the Z-tribute idea (plenty of them already!). I'm planning to restore it to 100% original condition. The only part of the original drivetrain that I'm missing is the tranny, so I need to locate a 1965 or later 3-speed (they had a synchronized 1st gear) on CL. I owned a '72 Nova 4-door when I was stationed in the Navy in San Diego about 1980...dark green with a six and 3-on-the-tree...it drove great and was easily able to keep up with Socal traffic, and got over 20 mpg. I doubt there are more than a handful of '69s left with this odd drivetrain, so it would be a real shame to modify it.

Don says he has photos of when it was new, as well as some paperwork (maybe owner's manual and POP...who knows) and will look for them. I won't tell you what I paid (so I don't have everyone chiming in about me being a sucker), but I think I got it fairly cheap (less than $5k). It needs basically everything, but it will be great to take to Camaro shows due to its rarity (but rare doesn't necessarily mean desirable as I have often heard ). I have a lot of parts leftover from my defunct '68 RS six cylinder project...NOS muffler, NOS fuel pump, perfect 208 coil, NOS ignition parts, etc. I have a perfect Firestone 7.35-14 Deluxe Champion spare that will go in the trunk. And yes, Little Alex (now 3 1/2 yrs-old) will be indoctrinated into the old car hobby. I did a lot of thinking about which old car to restore...the '77 COPO 9C1 Nova was too boring (but would've been fun to drive), the '68 RS Camaro was too rusty to save, and the '57 Chevy 210 wagon would someday seem like an old man's car to him. A '69 Camaro will never be an old man's car, even with a 6 cylinder. This will be a special car at shows because it will be one of the last of its kind left in existence. I retire in 3 yrs and will then be able to throw money at this car...until then I'll get it running and maybe drive it in its extremely nasty current form (after the snake sh*t is cleaned out of it ). I'll keep you guys posted on its progress. It's nice to be back on here.

It needs quarters, rockers, trunk lid, hood, front valance panel, doors, floors, and is rotted around the front and back windshields. It's probably also rotted at the bottom of the cowl vent area, plus has visible rot in the firewall, but it's rare (but rare doesn't always mean desirable, as is often heard on this forum ). After blowing $25-30K on it, it might be worth $15-20K. I lose money on every transaction, but I make up for it in volume ). Just kidding!

Yes, my car is in northern Indiana. I will be back out in mid west at the end of May. Hope to see a couple of CRG comrades. I think there has to be at least half a dozen Current CRG members in Ohio: Bentley, Bill, maybe Hawk?

Funny your quote of "Camaro project from hell", seems like your on a mission to resurrect them....

Stovebolt, wow...what a beauty! Your '68 is equipped exactly like my defunct '68 RS coupe project...230, 3-on-the-tree, radio delete. I like the sixes the best, probably due to their rarity. And there really aren't many places these days that you can race your Z28 or SS Camaro without breaking the rules, and the sixes are very smooth and easy on gas. Those reasons coupled with their rarity makes them attract attention at shows. Besides, I'm almost 58 and I don't need a musclecar at this point in my life.

If you need an extra column shift steering column that is painted light blue, let me know. It came out of a '67 Coupe, but I believe it's the same as yours. I came across it at a junkyard about 20 years ago and it is just taking up space.